Chapter 9
Viviana didn’t know how she made it from the yacht to solid ground. She wouldn’t have if in the stampede for shore she’d been separated from Dubois. But he hadn’t let her go. His strong arms around her had kept her from falling apart at the hideous scene and now had her safely on the landing. Viviana knew she’d never forget the nightmare sight of the beautiful young woman’s body being torn apart by the voracious sharks. Holding her tight against him, murmuring comforting nonsense words in her ear, Dubois had kept her from shattering. She couldn’t have survived the ordeal without him. She’d come damn close to diving into the water to save the girl. Dubois’s strong arms had prevented her from committing certain suicide.
When Dubois left to help his men drag Martinez from the cruiser, Viviana took the opportunity to break away from the crowd of gangsters. She had to get in touch with her lieutenant. She’d sent Travis Jenkins three text messages telling him that they had to move tonight, that something big was going down. She warned him that this was their best, and likely last, chance to capture Martinez. She told him to bring as many men as the Belize PD force had, indicating that this could be the biggest coup of their lives. Frustrated that her squad leader hadn’t answered any of her texts, she took a chance and called him. Hearing his crisp voicemail message, she groaned in frustration. Damn, when would she learn that going it alone wasn’t always the best choice? It sure as hell would be nice if she had an on-site team to support her tonight.
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Viviana stepped out of the shower, gratified that the healing water had done what it could to relieve at least a portion of the tension bombarding her aching muscles. She knew she’d be lucky if months from now the knots in her neck would release enough to allow her to turn her head without pain. Reaching for one of the thick, fluffy towels, she rubbed her wet hair, squeezing most of the water out of the shiny tresses. Knowing she was going to weave her long, blonde hair into a sexy twist on the top of her head tonight, she allowed the damp tendrils to hang freely over her shoulders. As she wrapped another of the luxurious towels around her naked body, she thought she heard a noise. Pretending indifference, she reached down and eased her pistol from the vanity drawer.
Turning around, she was shocked to see him casually lounging in the doorway. The key in his hand confirmed that she was still sharing her suite. Only not with Martinez. Rather, with a much more powerful man than Martinez could ever be.
Glancing at the weapon she was pointing at him, Jax’s lips tipped up in a grin. “Ah, so the sex kitten is smart enough to arm herself. With an HK45, no less.” Easing himself upright, he began moving slowly toward her. “Tell me, sweetheart, do you use it to keep all the eager men away?” He shook his head. “If so, I imagine you haven’t had to use it very often. All it would take is that brazen attitude of yours, that smiling smirk to confirm there isn’t a man alive who is capable of disarming you.” He cocked an ironic brow. “Until me.”
Continuing toward her, his blazing eyes belied his casual demeanor. Reaching for the gun, he took it from her and put it on top of the vanity. Placing the door key next to the pistol, he shot her a lazy grin, pretending surprise at her wide-eyed, startled gaze. “Surely, Maja, you didn’t think I would let you stay in this big suite all by yourself. It’s much too large for a single woman, even one like you. No question, Martinez needed to go. Even with your well-stocked pharmacy, I couldn’t be sure that sick animal wouldn’t overpower you. Besides, I needed to keep an eye on you. Protect you from yourself.” He added, his voice a silky threat, “From everyone but me.”
Ignoring her startled gasp, he stopped several feet in front of her. He frowned slightly, then nodded as if he understood. “You look surprised, Maja. Did you really think I would let you go? Not finish what we started this morning? That I could have touched you the way I did, in the places that I did, and not come back to finish the job?”
What he didn’t tell her was that he wasn’t sure what was going to happen tonight. At one level, he was certain of victory, that somehow, someway, he and his men would prevail, and he would keep her safe no matter what happened. But he was sanguine enough to know the dangers they faced. Even the remote possibility of failure had convinced him that if it were the last thing he did, he would make love to this women. To this amazing creature who had stolen his heart and toppled his resistance. Besides, the adrenaline surge he was still wrestling with from the hideous scene on the boat had amped his testosterone level into overdrive.
He nodded at the towel she’d wrapped around herself. Seeing her clutch it more securely against her damp skin, he smiled. “Take it off, Maja. Show me your beautiful body. The way you did on the mountaintop.” He huffed softly and shook his head at the memory. “You were so brazen, so confident, so sure of yourself. Little minx that you are, even from across the gorge you knew what you were doing to me.” When she hesitated, he narrowed his eyes and commanded softly, “Now, Maja. Take it off. Now.”
Viviana hesitated for a long moment, certain he could hear her heart pounding wildly in her chest. She would have fallen if she weren’t leaning against the vanity behind her. She hadn’t been able to draw a full breath since she’d seen him lazing in the doorway. He looked like a sleek panther sizing up his prey. His tall body, rippling with lean muscle, spoke to his strength. But as casually powerful as his pose was, his gleaming emerald eyes and rigid jaw spoke to his intensity.
Sucking in a deep breath, the cheeky insolence that had intrigued and then kept men at a distance all her life came to Viviana’s rescue. Meeting his piercing gaze head-on, she allowed her lips to curve in a slight smile. Then, slowly, seductively, she loosened the towel. For a long moment, she held it in front of her, then let it fall to her feet, baring her flushed body to his eager eyes.
Not able to repress the groan that fled from his lips, Jax nodded in appreciation, then quirked a finger at her, indicating she should come to him. When she tipped up her chin and hesitated, he shook his head. “Uh-uh, Maja. No games. Not with me. I decide how we’re going to play this scene.”
Gratified at the color that rose to her cheeks and the uncertainty that flashed across her face, he pointed to a spot in front of him.
“Here, baby, come here. Now.”
Not able to resist the magnetic pull of his commanding gaze, Viviana moved slowly toward him. Stunned at the raw carnal desire that shot through her, she would have fallen if he hadn’t caught her, closing the distance between them. He loomed over her, dominating her space with his powerful body. Securing both of her hands behind her with one of his, he dragged her up next to him. Fisting his hand in her hair, he bent her head back and kissed her, a brutal, intense kiss that shook her to her core. When he thrust his tongue deep in her mouth, demanding her capitulation, a frisson of electricity exploded across her spine. She almost didn’t recognize the passionate wail that sprang from her throat.
“Jesus, baby, now you’ve done it.” His voice was filled with wonder. Jax couldn’t believe her response. Christ almighty, he thought he was hot. He’d known since he first saw her that a churning caldron of heat was buried beneath her scathingly insolent indifference. From that moment on the mountaintop, he’d known that he would take her in a way she’d never been taken. It was only now, when she melted in his arms, that he understood just how tightly wired she’d been. How strong her defenses were. And how completely she was giving in to his command.
Lifting her up in his strong arms, he held her tight against his chest and strode into the bedroom. Laying her naked body on the massive bed, he stood back, stunned at her beautiful body in all its naked glory. Dragging his gaze over her luscious breasts, his breath strangled in his throat. Her taut, pink nipples were hardening before his eyes. He had to force himself not to reach for them, knowing that if he did, he wouldn’t be able to stop fondling them until he brought her to a wrenching climax.
First, he needed to absorb her. Capture her in his ravenous gaze. He was almost mindless with desire but forced himself to hold back. At some intuitive level, he understood that her insolent shell was just that. A shell that once broken would free passions this glorious woman had no idea she’d suppressed. Honored by the task ahead, he thanked his erotic gods they had given him enough experience to understand the gift he was about to receive. And the gift he was about to give her.
Seeing her shy gaze and slight frown, he smiled reassuringly. “Forgive me. I don’t want to frighten you, but I need you to know that you are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.” Wanting to lighten the moment, he allowed himself to smile. “On the other hand, I do want to scare you. At least enough so that you appreciate the magnitude of this moment.” When her frown deepened and she moved back, covering her breasts and crotch with her hands, he shook his head. “Uh-uh, Maja. You’re with me now. You don’t get to hide or ramp up your well- developed defenses. Remember, no games.” He flashed an ironic grin. “Except the ones I want to play.”
When she startled, her eyes narrowing dangerously, he shook his head once again. “Hands down, Maja.” When she jerked away, he changed his mind. “On second thought, darling, let’s do this instead.” Reaching for her hands, he pulled them up over her head and laced her fingers around the slats in the headboard. Gazing at her outstretched body, he breathed a hard sigh and murmured, “Yeah, baby, this is definitely better. And, Maja, that’s where I want your hands to stay.”
Seeing the flush rise up on her cheeks, Jax didn’t miss her startled gasp or the tremor that shook her legs. He murmured triumphantly, “Oh yeah, my sweet, feisty woman likes to be told what to do.”
When she cried out in anger and started to sit up, he quickly moved beside her and captured her hands in his, pressing them against the headboard. He leaned down and brushed his lips against the sensitive skin just below her ear and said, “You need to hold on, baby, so that I can make love to your beautiful breasts.” At her shocked gasp, he murmured, “Oh yeah, we both want me to do that, don’t we?”
Viviana had never given in to a man. The few trysts she’d had as an adult were on her terms. She initiated them and she controlled them. As in her professional life, her go-it-alone attitude infected her love life, if you could call it that. She was interested in sex, at least the thought of it, if not the actual practice. She got off more on her ability to make strong men cower in her presence than she did by opening her body to their grunting overtures. Which she did begrudgingly, never giving anything in return. She knew she was a cocktease, in fact, she reveled in it. What she never did was look below the surface of her antagonism. She knew what had happened in her past, but refused to do more than bury the hideous memories under a rock-hard layer of shale. A surface so hard and so deep it would take a diamond-drilling rig to break through.
Or, she realized too late, an emerald-eyed man with a devastating smile and an arrogant certainty that he could and would make love to her in ways she’d never dreamed were possible. Any thought that she could resist him bit the dust when he drew one erect nipple into his mouth and sucked on it. Many minutes later, when he’d done more erotic things to her nipples and surging breasts than she knew were possible, she gave up trying to resist. Tossing her head from side to side, she begged him to let her come. He laughed seductively, whispering that when he was ready to let her come, he’d tell her so, but until then, with his lips, his tongue, and his teeth, he would ensure that her climax continued to build. When she didn’t think she could stand another minute of the exquisite torture, he pinched one swollen nipple hard and bit down on the other. Her wail had already left her lips when he said, “Now, Maja. Now, baby, you can come.”
He held her in his arms, crooning soft words of praise until she began breathing somewhat normally. It was then that he rose beside the bed and began to undress. Taking off one boot and then the other, he began unbuttoning his shirt, one button at a time, shrugging it off his broad shoulders. Viviana sucked in a deep breath, marveling at the lean, muscular beauty of his toned body. But she gave up trying to breathe when he casually unzipped his pants and slid them over his slim hips. Jutting out from a nest of coarse black hair was the most impressive penis she’d ever seen. It stole her breath. Not knowing how she could take the astonishing staff into her body, she only knew that she would if it were the last thing she did.
But he had other erotic ministrations in mind before he deigned to enter her. Stunned when he refastened her hands to the headboard and climbed up over her, she was shocked when he spread her legs wide open and moved between them. Pressing her knees up against her chest, with an appreciative groan he opened her crotch to his eager gaze. She thought she might drown in his obscene litany when he praised her pussy with words like “luscious,” “moist,” “rosy pink,” and “scarlet hot.” But it was his fingers and then his lips and tongue that unerringly first found her G-spot and then her throbbing clit that brought her to one raging climax after another.
When she was sure she could never come again, the sound of ripping foil declared he was about to do the impossible. Clearly stunned at her glove-tight channel, he entered her slowly, carefully. Praising her beautiful cunt and succulent pussy, he began to tentatively thrust into her. When it was clear that he could no longer hold back, he began to drive into her, thrusting in and out, going deeper and harder than she believed was possible. Stunned at his rampant invasion of her eager body, Viviana began to climb an erotic mountain she never knew existed. His soft, encouraging pleas gave way to hard male groans and ultimately harsh, demanding animal grunts. When she thought she might explode, she gave in to the lust and amazingly, so did he. Her passionate cries ringing through the air were echoed by his triumphant shout as they clung ecstatically to each other, neither one wanting to let go.